the oldest long distance hiking trail in the US.
Little Hoof— a trail name to spoof my eager feet
but inch-meal stride, a name to celebrate.
How coltish I felt among milkweed and monarchs,
the artsy fungus on the arthritic pine—
conversant with brambly branches,
spring’s vernal pools that shrivel dry.
I reveled in the horsetail, coiled-snake silence—
woods time—my stopped clock.
What tree cared if Little Hoof sometimes dilly-dallied,
tarried in woods that green-draped the sky and velveted my hooves?
I hadn’t thought of Little Hoof lately—
but this morning her flicker in the mirror.
How could I not remember the miles,
the two hundred seventy-two?
How could I not remember how I whinnied, frayed to a frazzle,
but my hooves spurred a giddy-yap, let’s go?
Elves might not exist among toadstools except in fairy tales,
but Little Hoof—yes, she’s still around.
And when you own your name, you hang onto it.
Pam Ahlen’s work has appeared in Cider Press Review, The Adirondack Review, Women’s Voices for Change, Parks and Points among others. Pam organizes special events for Osher (Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth) and compiled the Anthology of Poets and Writers: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years at Dartmouth. She received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the author of the chapbook Gather Every Little Thing (Finishing Line Press) and the co-author (with Anne Bower) of the chapbook Getting it Down on Paper: Shaping a Friendship. (Orchard Street Press). She lives in rural Vermont where she shares her dirt road with the occasional bear.
Banner image courtesy Derek Wright.
